46 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



others idiotic. Some are deaf, others lame or blind. Some are 

 deficient by a hand ; others lack a leg. 



Some are musicians, others orators or actors. Some like 

 mathematics ; others love literature. Some are farmers, others 

 lawyers or engineers. Many succeed ; many fail. Between even 

 the traditional twins that " look so nearly alike that their mother 

 could not tell them apart," important differences will be found 

 if a trained observer looks closely enough. 1 



All this is equally true of animals and plants. It is only to 

 the untrained that all individuals of the same species look alike. 

 Horses differ so much in size, color, conformation, gait, and 

 disposition that it is difficult indeed to get together a " matched 

 span." 2 Some are intelligent and proud of their work ; others 

 are foolish, sluggish, and unreliable. Sheep differ not only in 

 the quantity of the fleece but in the fineness of the fiber as well 

 as in the density and the evenness of covering. 3 



No two trees bear apples alike, and even different apples on 

 the same tree differ not only in size but in quality. Some 

 melons are fine in texture and flavor ; others of equal size are 

 " like pumpkins." One tree bears specially luscious peaches ; 

 another is next to worthless. 



Among wildlings the same principle holds. Some horses are 

 fleeter than others and some wolves more cunning. 4 Every 

 woods boy knows the bushes that bear the most luscious berries 

 and the tree that bears the largest and the best flavored nuts, 



1 Even opposite sides of the same individual are slightly different. One 

 shoulder is higher than the other; one leg is longer or stronger than the 

 other, meaning a longer step and causing lost people to travel in a circle. 

 Everybody is either " right-" or " left-handed," meaning by this that the cor- 

 responding side is the better developed and capable of stronger or more 

 accurate action. 



2 To the casual observer two horses colored alike are matched, but the 

 horseman looks first to the gait, then to conformation and size, and last of all 

 to the color. 



8 The wool is finest and longest on the sides and back, shortest underneath, 

 and coarsest on the thighs. 



4 Read the story of Lobo in " Wild Animals I Have Known," by Thompson- 

 Seton. 



